she who wears the crown
by momtara
Summary: "What is a legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see." / Or, in which the rebel leader and Meridian's queen discuss the heavy burden of leadership and legacy. One-shot.


Queen Elyon stands above her kingdom. Lofty clouds drift through the sky, waterfalls tumbling down mountains in the distance, and she notices that the air here is fresher than it is at home on Earth (no, Meridian is home now). Caleb is at her right hand, as usual, her parents to her left, with half a dozen sentries standing guard on the palace balcony.

The people flock to see her, the chosen one, throngs of Meridianites chanting indiscernibly. Some cry her name, others calling in praise and reverence, begging for an address as they wave flags and hoist children onto their shoulders. There must be hundreds, thousands even.

When she opens her mouth to speak, no words come out.

The crowds begin to scatter as the sky turns red and starts to fall. She can't speak; her voice has no purchase in her weak throat. The young monarch casts her eyes around the balcony where she stands; her parents, Caleb, the sentries are nowhere to be found as her people swarm and shout in terror. _Her_ people!

Elyon bolts upright, and the scream threatening in her throat never comes.

* * *

"Queen Elyon. May I have a word with you?"

She opens her mouth to howl out a yawn. The meeting with Meridian's urban planner was tiresome enough, but after her nightmare she is positively exhausted. _I need some fresh air_ , Elyon decides, opening the double doors to the balcony where her dream took place. "I've told you a hundred times, Caleb," she says with a smile. "Just call me Elyon."

"Right...Elyon." Her name without the royal title feels foreign on his tongue.

"What did you want to talk about?" she asks.

Caleb rakes a hand through his hair, a nervous gesture. "I was barely your age when I started leading the rebellion. That's when my dad got taken away, and everything changed for me." He sighs heavily at the memory; just thinking about the resistance makes his bones feel weary, though it has only been one revolution around Meridian's second sun since Phobos was overthrown.

"I can't imagine," Elyon breathes. "Meridian during peacetime is one thing, but a rebellion against my…" She tugs at the rings in her hair in discomfort. "...against Phobos; you must have had your work cut out for you."

"It wasn't easy, but the people of Meridian are steadfast and strong. And the Guardians helped, too. They gave us hope." Caleb's mouth curves into a smile. "As did their princess returning after all those years."

The queen's face flushes, but she elects to ignore her advisor's compliment. "I wish I had a whole battalion to lean on sometimes. Even having the girls here would make a world of difference."

Even the slightest mention of the Guardians brings thoughts of violet eyes and sunlit hair to Caleb's attention. He pushes the longing, the loneliness, the affection away into the deepest recesses of his mind, knowing now is not the time. He will see her soon. "You're under an immense amount of pressure," he continues, his tone laden with sympathy. "I know you have nightmares, sometimes…"

"Caleb!" Elyon wonders how far her reign could stretch, if the queen could censor her friend's speech should he embarrass her too much. "We don't need to talk about that."

He laughs nervously in response. "You know, from one leader to another, you make a great queen. Ruling can be...not so fun. At least with the rebellion, there was action, excitement…"

"But so much violence and death," she breathes. "You must feel like you have a whole generation's blood on your hands. I mean, not that you do, but I can understand if-"

"No, no, you're right," Caleb says, interrupting her anxious babbling. "The first command I led, there were more casualties than I could even count." His face seems to clouds over, green eyes darkening. "I thought I would never get over the shame."

"How did you do it?"

He knows then that he was right to initiate this conversation, sees a thousand unanswered questions as plain as day on her face, the burden that rests on her small shoulders. Caleb looks down towards the village and folds his arms behind his back. "What do you see?"

Of course, there are the buildings with their spires pointing towards the sky; they are homes mostly, Julian's closest to the castle with Aldarn's at the edge of the village, but some are small business, eateries taking the place of the markets and banks that have been established since Elyon's rule. There are the wide plains and the vast lakes, forestland in the distance, lush green valleys and rolling hills like something out of a fairytale. But more than anything, Elyon sees what is most important. "My people."

"Queen Elyon, the people of Meridian adore you. They'd adore anyone after your wretched brother," Caleb adds as an afterthought. "But if you show any weakness, you will be torn to pieces."

"What...do you mean?" she croaks, her eyes wide with trepidation.

"I don't know what they'll say about us when we're gone." Caleb whispers the words that will haunt him until his dying breath. "Who gets to tell the story of Caleb, leader of the rebellion against Prince Phobos, or Elyon - Queen Elyon? Our legacy will be out of our control. What do you want your legacy to be?"

"I want to be respected, liked, even. I want the people to be happy," Elyon decides after a beat. In truth, she has been sure of these words since before she was thrown head-first into the world of royalty - a world of endless meetings and paperwork and things to sign and people in high places to brush shoulders with - since Lord Cedric said that her destiny was something greater than she could ever imagine. "I want Meridian to grow and prosper and become the great nation I know it can be."

Caleb meets her sincere gaze once more. "I think you can achieve all of that, and more. And when I hear anyone denounce the name of Queen Elyon, I promise to defend you."

"When?" Elyon echoes, folding her arms over her chest. "Wow, thanks for the faith! Appreciate it."

He thinks of the whispers behind his back, the petty remarks and the name-calling and the childish gossip, then and even now. "People are going to criticise you whether you do good, or not." Caleb lays a gentle hand on her shoulder. "But I know that you will make a wonderful queen, like your mother, and her mother, and her mother before her."

He rocks back on his feet when Elyon throws her arms around his shoulders. This girl, this tiny queen has enveloped him in her embrace, and Caleb wonders if this is what it feels like to have a sister. "Thank you, Caleb."

Caleb smiles into her hair. "History has its eyes on you, Queen Elyon. Don't forget that."

* * *

Princess Weira is a pint-sized daydream with ginger curls and a quiet smile as bright as the sun. The cinnamon-coloured freckles scattered across her dark skin seem red, red with danger, as she stands with her back to the hulking wooden doors. She takes shaky breaths to steady herself and shoos her handmaidens away with a wave of her hand.

"I don't know if I can do this."

"Of course you can," her mother assures her, stroking her face with the back of her hand. She is older now, crow's feet by her eyes and silver running through her golden hair.

"How did you…" Weira shakes her head. "You were so young, yet so beloved."

She has been preparing her daughter for this moment for decades, rehearsed the encouraging speech she had never gotten but known she had deserved, wondered what to pass to her daughter the moment her own reign ended.

In that moment, all of that goes out the window.

Elyon presses a kiss to her daughter's forehead. "History has its eyes on you."

* * *

a/n: hello everyone! thank you so so much for reading. i should totally be doing a college assignment rn but here we are. im a bit obsessed with Elyon as queen, her style of ruling, her feelings surrounding being thrown into this new world with a ton of aliens and rules with no prior experience. alas this is where fanfiction comes in. imo Elyon made a wonderful queen, fell in love, and named her daughter after her mother, but thats a story for another day! ofc, the whole 'history has its eyes on you' thing was fleeced directly from Hamilton, which remains a great source of inspiration for me.

i also headcanon that Caleb has this huge guilt complex re: the rebellion. leading aint easy, and the most minor human error can result in tons of casualties. he and Elyon can relate in that way as leaders. i think Caleb kinda became Elyon's right hand post-rebellion. i see their relationship as siblingly (i just made up a word! youre welcome), and ofc i had to include some Caleb/Cornelia shipping here bc im weak

anyway! this a/n is getting far too long so let me just say that reviews make me very happy and i would love if you checked out some of my other writing :)

big love,

A xxxx


End file.
